My progress in English
Melany Lopez Yachay Tech University English Language Program 2016 Yachay, Ecuador
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My progress in English Melany Lopez Yachay Tech University English Language Program CLASS: L6 - 016 TEACHER: HAMILTON QUEZADA January 12, 2017 IMBABURA, ECUADOR
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Contents 1. Portfolio letter 2. Literary Analysis: How will a global language affect humanity? 3. Response essay: Ethics of Human Enhancement 4. Interpretation essay: Interpretation of Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 by Pink Floyd. 5. Final research project essay: Animal Testing 6. Additional materials (pictures/videos/other works) 7. Thank you letter
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Yachay Tech University Melany López December 12, 2016
Dear Portfolio reader, First of all, welcome to my portfolio, my name is Melany Lopez, and I’m Yachay Tech University student. In this portfolio, I will show you my assignments during level 6 English Course. I hope you enjoy reading it. In these four following essays are my progress showed over the course of the semester. Some of these essays were a challenge for me but that help to improve. At this level is joined everything I have learned at previous levels such as grammar, vocabulary, and punctuation. At the beginning I had a lot of grammar and punctuation mistakes and my ideas were not good developed, but with practice I have been improving. When I started level six, writing essays were difficult for me. I started to hate them because I could not focus on a specific idea. Furthermore, when I got a right idea I did not know how to develop in an understandable way. So it became stressful for me. Then we practice a lot doing outlines before start writing and applying the strategy that our teacher gave us: the triple X. This strategy consists that when you already have your ideas on your outline, just expand, exemplify and explain each idea. It was very helpful for my essays, so I recommend it to you. Some of these essays were a challenge for me. For example, the argumentative essay was about a story called “The story of an hour”. It was one of the most difficult readings to analyze. The story is about a girl that lost her husband in a war and at the beginning she was sad about that; but after a while she realized that she could be free and happy. The question was: Why could she be happy with the death of her husband? The answer I will explain you on the second essay of this portfolio. This essay was written during class as an assignment. We’ve already read it before. For writing that essay I had 1 hour and 40 minutes. So I had to think smartly and quickly. For that
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reason it was difficult. But not all the essays were difficult to write. I enjoy writing some of them. The essay that was easiest to write was the interpretation essay. For that I had to work in a group. My group chose for this interpretation the song of Pink Floyd called “Another Brick on the wall”. This song shows the disagreement that existed between the students and the educational system. It was a nice experience because there I could hear different points of view about the song. And that was helpful for writing the essay because we had many ideas to write. Another essay that I enjoy writing was my final research paper, because it is about animal testing. I’m against this kind of experimentation because of the cruelty against animals, and today there are many alternatives that can help science instead of using animals. By writing this essay I learned a lot of things such as how animal testing is, which are the alternatives and the failures that it had along the time. Writing essays was an interesting experience during this level. Now, I realize that all of those essays helped me to improve. I don’t consider that it was a waste of time because with each essay I learned different things; I acquired knowledge because when you have to write an essay, you have to understand the topic. Also, I expanded my vocabulary, improved grammar and punctuation, and it became easier for me to connect ideas. My tips for you when you write essays are: do an outline, apply the triple X and keep practicing. Every day you can learn something new. Justo don’t give up.
Sincerely, Melany Lopez
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Literary analysis
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How will a global language affect humanity? Melany Gisell Lรณpez Aveiga Yachay Tech
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HOW WILL A GLOBAL LANGUAGE AFFECT HUMANITY? Language is essential in the communication. Around 6909 distinct languages are spoken around the world. But these digits are decreasing according to some experts, we are headed to word a world in which everyone will speak the same language, but what would happen to the world if all the languages disappear and only there’s a global language? The diversity of the world would be affected. There should not be a global language because language is a connection with the culture of a community, personal identity, and in some ways it can help to increase the tourism. Language is intrinsic to the expression of culture. Everything has something that makes special and unique. A country is special because of the culture, the traditions, food, custom and language, if the language disappears, part of the culture will die as a consequence, and that country will be a less interesting place. However, some people believe that a global language will help humanity; the world would be easier because it facilitates the understanding all around the world. Communication will be better, well; people who believe that have a good point. But, language is not only a meth of communication, it’s a link to our personal identity, and that’s much important to lose” (Cancio, 2016) Language is closely tied to the culture, but it can also help to increase the tourism of a country. One of the main attractive of a country is the culture, and part of the culture is the language. Some people are attracted by native languages. For example, in Otavalo there is a place where indigenous teach kiwchwa and most of the students there are foreign people who come to Ecuador because of the culture. However, people who are in a favor of a global language think that if everybody speak the same
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language , it will be easier to increase the economy with business instead of tourism , with that people won’t be afraid to be misunderstood, in a foreign country. That’s another good point from them. But most of the time someone travels is in order to have a new experience, new adventures, go away from the routine, meet people and different cultures and learning a new language can bring that. That can provide a new experience and people will appreciate the effort of learning their native language. To sum up, languages are important. It’s a strong connection to our personal identity, to our culture and to our past, it’s the main attractive of a country. And for that reasons there should never be a global language “losing the native language is similar to lose the culture” (Casio, 2016)
REFERENCE Cancio, C. (2016). What if everyone on earth spoke the same language? Retrieved from http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-mgth
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Response essay
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Ethics of Human Enhancement Melany Gisell Lรณpez Aveiga Yachay Tech
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ETHICS OF HUMAN ENHANCEMENT In the present era, human enhancement has become more common. Thanks to the rapid progress in the field of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science, people can change the way how they look or modify their brain; for example, they can increase their memory. The objective with these improvements is to be better and feel better with themselves, but it has consequences. People prefer to use drugs or genetic modification instead of exercises or a good diet. In the article called “Ethics of the human enhancement”, the author affirms that we are in a “trans human era” and it affects to the health of people and ethics, for this article he presents good points with interesting arguments to support it. The author of this article, Andy Miah, explains how the new age is working; for him, it is called the “trans-human era”. In this age, humans try to manipulate the biology and for that, ethical debates about human enhancements have taken place. He provides some examples for the comprehension of this era and some arguments that clearly illustrated his ideas, to inform us, he explains how some human improvements affect the health of a person. He mentions some arguments against the human enhancement for short-term gain, and also he says that the achievement value is one of the things altered by these kinds of improvements. For him, the main by which people achieve their goals is important and influence the person´s prospect. To clarify, he mentions the following example: a mountaineer reaches a hill using a helicopter rather than by physically climbing the mountain. Well, the mountaineer reached the hill, but the consequences is that such action undermines the achievement’s value and it is similar when someone does an enhancement for her body in a short term gain. He decreases his achievement’s
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value. Actually, it is common to hear that athletes use different drugs that increase physical strength or provides different capabilities that help them to win. A good point of view of the author which I agree is that humans have always sought to improve themselves. There are different methods by which a person can be better and it includes education, a good diet or exercise, but in many cases people prefer methods of enhancement that cause moral concern such as drugs or genetic modification. Individuals prefer the “easy way” to reach a goal, the consequences don’t matter for them in that moment but in the future it can affect to their health. Many of them leave aside the effort and sacrifices involved in having a healthy lifestyle and opt for this kind of improvements. Therefore, they are manipulating the biology in their own way. One of the most interesting points of this article is that people treat biology as “something to be manipulated at will, depending on one´s lifestyle rather than health needs”. People make themselves better not because they need, some of them make it because they want to be better than others in a selfish way. For example, in a competition people want to win, and for that some of them make enhancements in their body that can give strength or whatever they need to stay at the top. But, it goes against ethics and in a future it can affect their health. If they win the race, it decreases the achievement’s value. How it was mentioned before, athletes use some drugs to improve their capabilities as strength or resistance. For a moment they can feel right, but in a future they are exposed to some complications with their health as heart problems, which are very common, and others. Also, these enhancements are not only present in sports; they can even be present in education. In the actual era there’s the possibility to modify the brain, increase the memory or reasoning capabilities. However, there are
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some psychopharmacological substances such as antidepressant medications that have ethical concerns. The antidepressant medication helps an individual to be quiet, but they are considered morally undesirable because it transforms the patient to someone else. These kinds of drugs are a good example of how this “enhancement� damages a person. When a patient has mental problems, the doctor recommends these pills; the person can feel better for a moment, but he/she can become addicted. There are cases in which these people commit suicides or develop more mental problems. A few years ago, I saw that in the news an airplane fell down and the person guilty was the pilot; he took these pills because of some depression problems. For some reason, there are psychologists that don’t recommend these pills because they don't always help; it has bad consequences in a person, even worse, it can take them to the death. To sum up, science is advancing progressively and notoriously some of these advances are shown in the human enhancements. This new era gives the facility to improve some aspects of the body or the brain. With those improvements a person can be more attractive or intelligent, but it has consequences and moral concerns. The author of this article mentioned some points with their respective argument and I agree with all of them. We can recognize that there are some enhancements that people can try without putting in danger their own health such as diet and exercise, but not everybody likes the notion of an extra effort. So they prefer take the "easy way" using drugs as a solution; even when these kinds of improvements can affect to the ethic and the health of a person. For that reason, people have to be sure about what they are going to do with their body and think twice before to do an enhancement.
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REFFERENCES Miah, A. (2016). Ethics Issues Raised by Human Enhancement. OpenMind. Retrieved 5 October 2016, from https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/article/ethic s-issuesraised-by-human-enhancement/?fullscreen=true
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Interpretation (Collaborative) Essay
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Interpretation of Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 by Pink Floyd. Flor Mario, Lรณpez Melany, Salazar Samantha Yachay Tech University
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INTERPRETATION OF ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL PART 2 BY PINK FLOYD. “Another Brick in the Wall Part. 2” expresses the feelings of children towards school and education system. The video shows a dark sarcasm of some teachers in the classroom and how the school was in that age. The students follow only one direction that the school imposes to make them a group without freedom. As an effect of that, children rebel against the school, by breaking rules they were imposed and then burning it. The present interpretation attempts to analyze each part aforementioned of the musical video “Another brick in the Wall part. 2” In the video, there is a kid in a school that looks like an boarding school. It is a traditional school of that time. Like students, teachers also wear uniforms. At that time, the rules of schools were very hard and strict. Professors could do whatever they want. In the video, a teacher sees that a child is writing a poem and he laughs in front of everyone showing the dark sarcasm of the teacher, who has that has no respect. Professors could even hit children, and children could no protest or say anything. Roger Waters, the writer of the song, was obviously grown in the 70´s and he probably went to a boarding school. It looks like he hated his teachers, and they probably hit him. The video is a protest against education where teachers were more interested in cultivating the discipline than transmitting their knowledge. The professor sees the students as just “another brick in the wall”. A teacher does not let the student, the kid (called Pink) that was writing the poem, express his ideas in a freeway, leaving him in ridicule in a way that he would not want to write a poem again. The students can just follow the rules that were imposed. In order for them to not say anything, they are treated as just objects in a factory.
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School was a place where students cannot express their ideas; they just have to follow orders from their professors. Students follow only one direction that the school imposes to make them a group without freedom. The main problem of the system education of that decade was that the teachers were closed minded: all the things that teachers said should be fulfilled just as in a factory. The video shows a kind of factory where all the students start marching in the same rhythm and direction. After that, students are wearing masks and are sitting on desks. Finally, in the processing of students, all the students have the same clothes, marching in the same way, and using the same masks. Now, no differences can be made between each other. All of them were processed according the system of education. After all the process, children are converted into sausages to illustrate how the government sees children: as something that can be manipulated and used to increase the economy of the country. It’s similar to the process in a factory: the products start as different materials, and after some process, they look the same. Once the product is ready, it is sold to increase the economy of the owner of the company. Another fact that the video presents is a big clock that express the rules of meeting stipulated schedules. A part of the song said, “No thought control� because the school prepared them to be the same, taking away their free expression. The system of education that the video shows tried children as objects. While the scenes of the children marching through the factory-school are taking place, children's behavior starts to change. A rebellion start. Teachers were more interested in keeping the order between students than teaching them. As a consequence of that, children begin to break the order and they removed themselves the masks imposed by school. They go to the classrooms, break each desk, chair and book that they found and they destroy the walls of bricks of the school.
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Finally, they burn the whole school, creating a bonfire, screaming “We don’t need no education” and running away of school. Obviously, it is only a creative idea of the Pink’s mind. This part of the video shows two big outcomes. The first is how the children are transported by a band to be crushed and transformed in sausages but the children rebelled and broke the order. Its meaning is that children are tired of following a specific and boring pattern created by a rustic educational system. And the second is the chorus part where children sing after burning the school and making a bonfire: “We don’t need no education”. This sentence is grammatically incorrect. It's a double negative and really means "We need education."(Songfacts, 2016). This causes a certain degree of irony because the video shows us the children breaking desks, chairs, books and a building where they receive their education. But, if it is analyzed profoundly, the children mean: don't receive “no education”. This means that children don't want to learn and live with violence. They want respect to their skills and freedom to grow without any problem. “The whole system of public education around the world is a protracted process of university entrance. And the consequence is that many highlytalented, brilliant, creative people think they're not, because the thing they were good at school wasn't valued, or was actually stigmatized. And I think we can't afford to go on that way” (Robinson, K., 2006). The song is meant to be a rebellion against errant government, against people who have power in the educational system over defenseless people. Without doubt, this will be a hymn remembered by many people. In conclusion, the video wants to transmit us three principal ideas. How wrong was the 70´s scholar system with teachers that had no limits. The similarities between a factory and a school; both just see objects and products. And finally, how a suppressed group can rebel sooner or later, if the system does not work.
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REFERENCES
Another Brick In The Wall (part II) by Pink Floyd Songfacts. (2016). Songfacts.com. Retrieved 13 November 2016, from http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1696
Robinson, K. (2006, February). Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity? {Video file}. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_ schools_kill_ creativity? language=en
Another Brick In The Wall, p. (2016). Another Brick In The Wall, part 2 | The Wall Analysis. Thewallanalysis.com. Retrieved 13 November 2016, from http://www.thewallanalysis.com/another-brick-in-the-wall-part-2/
Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2. (2016). YouTube. Retrieved 11 November 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDl6iuku_mw
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Final Research Project: Essay
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Behind Animal Testing
Melany Gisell Lรณpez Aveiga
Yachay Tech
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ABSTRACT
It is common to hear that many animals are used as an experiment every year for the development of science, but what is behind animal testing? The objective of this paper is to show how much animal testing afect to animals which are used for experimentation and how they are treated during the experimentation. To show that, this paper would be based on three main points which are: The suffering of animals during the test, the failures of animal testing along the time that has as a consequence the death of some people and the last one, the alternatives of animal testing.
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Behind Animal Testing Could you imagine how would you feel if you woke up in a room surrounded by people that you do not know and who carry tools that can hurt you? Well, that is the situation of millions of innocent animals that are separated from their family and taken away from their home to a laboratory where they will be used as an experiment. For many years laboratories have been using animals such as rats, frogs, dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, monkeys, fish, and birds for scientific and commercial testing. They are used to develop medical treatments, health care uses and to check the safety of products destined for human use such as cosmetics, drugs, cleaning products and food additives. It is estimated that between 50 and 100 million animals are used every year for scientific and commercial testing. But, animal testing has many consequences in animals which are used in these experiments. Most of them suffer physically and psychologically. In some cases this pain is unnecessary because some substances tested may never be used for anything useful or if those are used, that could hurt people. Also, the discoveries made in this testing could be produced in other ways without hurting animals. Animals, which are used on animal testing, suffer during the experimentation. The suffering can be psychological or physical because this test includes different steps by which the animal can be injured such as: injecting or forcing feeding with harmful substances that can hurt them, exposing to radiation, surgically removing organs or tissues from animals to cause harm on purpose, forcing animals to inhale toxic gases such as CO2, subjecting animals to frightening situations to create anxiety or
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depression, and forcing animals to live in little cages. ("What is animal testing?� n.d.). In many experiments animals have to die as part of the test. For example, to test cosmetic products it is common to use rats or rabbits which are forced to ingest or inhale cosmetic ingredients, or they apply those ingredients to their shaved skin every day for 28 or 90 days. After the process, they die. The objective of this testing is to identify skin sensitization. For that reason, they use guinea pigs with their shaved skin that is exposed to the substance, or through the ears of rats to see the allergic reactions, and then exterminated. Also, laboratories make a carcinogenicity test with rats. For this test rats are fed for two years with substances to see if they produce cancer, and to confirm that they are killed for analysis ("What is animal testing?� n.d.). Every year, thousands of animals die because of toxicity test. Another example in which animals die on purpose is Lethal Dose 50 (LD50). This dose is a way of measuring potential shortterm poisoning of a material. It is used on animals and at least 50% of a group of animals die or they are very close to death. In this testing exists more death of animals than benefits to human beings. It is not morally justified. Most of the time those deaths are unnecessary because some substances tested on animals do not work well on humans. Some substances tested on animals are useless and in cases it can hurt people because animals and humans have many differences. Also animals are under pressure, stress and fear. As a consequence, the results of the experiments can change and it would not work correctly because they would not react for the treatments as in a natural environment. There were many cases in which the experimentation worked well on animals, but it failed when it was used on humans. Although we share 95% of our genes with a mouse, it does not necessarily mean that it is expressed in the same way. According to a recent study, which compared the activity of human genes with
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equivalent mouse genes, to cope with sepsis, trauma and burns, humans and mice use very different sets of genes. From this, it was possible to explain why 150 drugs that successfully treated sepsis-like conditions in mice failed in human clinical trials.("Failure of the Animal Model", 2016) Like this drug, there are more cases in which animal experimentation has failed in humans, injuring them and even causing them death. For example, combined heart and lung transplants were supposed to be perfected in animals, but the first three human patients died within the first 23 days post-transplant. In 28 patients operated between 1981 and 1985, of which 8 died during the intervention and 10 have developed bronchiolitis obliterans. Of those 10 patients, 4 died and 3 could not breathe more without the aid of a respirator. Bronchiolitis obliterans is the highest risk associated with the operation. ("50 disasters of animal testing�, n.d.) In other words, what works in animals does not guarantee that it works in humans. For that reason, some companies implement modern alternatives that do not involve animals. This kind of testing takes a lot of time, money, and resources. Just one experiment can take years to give results, thousands of dollars and death of many animals. In the present era, there are different alternatives by which human beings can benefit without using animals. In fact, few companies are implementing modern alternatives of testing that are more efficient, safer, cheaper, and the most important: without torturing and killing animals as a part of the experimentation. One of them is Pharmagene Laboratories, based in Royston, England. This company has become the first one to use only human tissues and sophisticated computer technologies in the process of drug development and testing. With this alternative the company can have better results and safer than with animal testing. The test is based on molecular biology, biochemistry, and analytical pharmacology. Furthermore, that different tools permit to
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Pharmagene conduct extensive studies of human genes and how drugs affect those genes or the proteins that they make. According to Pharmagene scientists the discovery process is much more efficient with human tissues. ("Alternatives: Testing Without Torture", 2016). These studies take less time; it can take just few days, a comparison of animal testing that take years and spend a lot of money to get a result. Avon is another company that stops using animals for testing nearly 25 years ago. In fact, Avon was the first major cosmetic company to end animal testing. Until June of 1989 Avon killed about 24,000 animals a year to test its products. Now instead, this company uses nonanimal product safety testing methods. Avon scientists have long participated as members of the Scientific Advisory Panel of the Institute of the InVitro Sciences, Inc., a non-profit research and testing organization dedicated to the advancement of in vitro (non-animal) methods worldwide and Avon is a Founding Sponsor of the American Society for Cellular Computational Toxicology. ("Avon Products, Inc. & Consumer Safety", 2016) For many years, animal testing has been helping humanity to develop new medicine and make important research and discoveries. For those discoveries, it was essential to use animals because they are considered in many aspects similar to humans. According to people who are in favor, animals and humans are very similar; we have the same organ systems performing the same tasks in more or less the same way. We share 95% of our genes with a mouse, making them an effective model for the human body. Actually, people in favor of animal testing have many valid points. However, there are many ways by which animals and humans are different and not all the discoveries in those experiments work well in humans. Human and animals are never exactly the same. The reaction in animals is different from the reaction in humans. In fact, animals in these experiments are under
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stress, so they would not react as in a natural environment; as a consequence, it can affect the results of the experiments. Along the time, many cases have occurred in which animal testing has failed because of the differences between animals and humans. Those failures hurt many people and several died. For example, an arthritis drug called Opren killed 61 people; this drug was tested on apes without causing problems. Animal testing may help humanity but not always works well. Also, animals do not have to be used as experiments; it is a cruelty. Thousands of animals suffer and die every year for these experiments and in many cases in vain. They have to be respected. To sum up, millions of animals per year suffer and die during the animal testing. They are used for helping humanity but the level of suffering and the numbers of animals involved are both so high that the benefits to humanity do not provide moral justification. In animal testing some failures existed that caused damage and the death of many people. And those failures were caused because of the differences between animals and humans. Although animals and humans have some similarities, they would not react in the same way. At the present time, there are different modern alternatives that laboratories could use because they are safe, they do not take much time and they are not expensive. During the testing, animals are tortured and killed and that is unfair and cruel. Animals should not be in laboratories, they should be free. All animals deserve a chance to live.
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REFERENCE Failure of the Animal Model. (n.d.). National Anti-Vivisection Society. Retrieved 5 December 2016, from http://www.navs.org/the-issues/failure-of-the-animalmodel/
Alternatives: Testing Without Torture. (n.d). Peta2.com. Retrieved 6 December 2016, from http://www.peta2.com/issue/testing-alternatives-factsheet/
Avon Products, Inc. & Consumer Safety. (2016). Avoncompany.com. Retrieved 8 December
2016, from http://www.avoncompany.com/corporate-
responsibility/about-cr/positions-policies/animal-welfare/
What is animal testing? | Cruelty Free International. (2016). Retrieved 9 December 2016, from https://www.crueltyfreeinternational.org/why-we-do-it/what-animaltesting
50 disasters of animal testing ( n.d.). Vivisectioninformation.com. Retrieved 9 December 2016, from http://vivisectioninformation.com/indexdfa4.html? animal-testing
p=1_1050-disasters-of-
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ADDITIONAL MATERIALS:
ANIMALS ARE FOR LOVING NOT FOR TESTING
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Thanks for giving you some time to read my essays, I hope you liked it. ď Š
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